jason74

Hmmm...

MrSelfDestruct

That's nice...

I'll take an S.

mclaudio

Thanks for sharing. I hope to agree after I test drive the base and S back-to-back. If I were to order one today, my DD build would be a no-frills base 991 with PDK and roof rack.

Alstoy

I went through this with my 997, and ended up with a base. For me, a bum-basic base made a lot of sense and I've never looked back. BUT....with the 991 I'm a bit torn. There's all this wonderful add-ons like PDK, etc. I will get plenty of seat-time before making my decision. I can't go wrong either way. I have never met a Porsche I didn't like. Cheers.

triode

The extra power of the S would make that a no-brainer for me.

My great concern after reading the Evo comparo tests - both 991 and 991S - was that they were quite damning about the steering, and neither 911 won its test nor received the customary 5-star rating. 991 may be a better car, but as some have said, "not a better 911".

I fervently hope that they bag the e-steering for the GT series cars. The fuel savings are microscopic, and the steering feel of my car is addictive.

MrSelfDestruct

The steering is just not as good as the 997. Until I've tried the 7-speed manual that is my only complaint.

991 3Turbo

I don't think the 997 was the topic here

Carrera GT

I think the "base" (cough) Carrera is the bargain in the 997.1 and 997.2 as well as the 991 ... as a 993 driver looking at the 997.1 Carrera, I was very impressed by the performance and feel. Ironically, the Carrera ends up costing as much as the Carrera S in terms of resale value net dollar loss, at least around Silicon (not really so filthy rich as it used to be) Valley, dealers report being unhappy to have a Carrera to sell because buyers just won't choose it even when they're never going to use the performance of the S. Conversely while in Texas shopping around for an RS, the dealer reported that the S was a liability and that buyers were very happy to pocket the difference and still be driving much the same car for their purposes.

Carcam

I'm sure the 991 base is more than enough for 95% of our driving. The Porsche driving school does amazing things with base cars. Financially speaking, getting your best value and return when you're done, it's getting a low option car. Porsche is great for letting you option it (at great cost) just as you want, but you just don't get it back on trade-in or resale.

Mumbles

For my choice on a new 991, I would get a relativerly base S.

fbroen

I will forever be amazed how much weight the resale value seems to get in the decision process. It is going to be horrendous either way, so picking version with that in mind seems a bit odd when selecting an item that is by definition a discerning choice to begin with?

Carrera GT

It's easy to whip PASM and S-PASM -- the technology is a sitting duck for criticism in a sports car (a wobbly, jiggly, uncertain sort of a duck, but still, it quacks like a duck and it makes the car waddle like a duck, so it's a duck, but then again, it also makes the car float, so it's a witch and should be burned.)

So I'm no fan of PASM. It's not "sporty" on track (it's heavy and slow and late to the party) and it's not comfortable let alone luxurious on the road (where a properly set up coil-over will be noticeably more comfortable, but doesn't have the compelling value proposition of being able to tell you what to feel with words on the instrument display ...) My 993 has PSS9's -- hardly top shelf kit -- and it rides over the moon surface craters of California's freeways and secondary roads with a distinctly comfortable and compliant, resilient ride quality, yet it communicates everything that's going on under each tire, individually.

Taking the 991 out on some enjoyable and familiar roads with a fun but safe and sensible "+20" pace, switching from normal to sport to sport plus, the car is well within its envelope in all settings. It just makes the turns and after a while, your arms feel a bit weary from the heavy steering.

Speaking of sport and sport plus, I can't really tell any difference yet, other than the downshifts are a lot higher in the rpm range and make a cool, but somehow distractingly "programmed" barking, crackling exhaust note on a trailing throttle ... it makes you ask "how'd they do that? ... they put some sort of 'Porsche trailing throttle exhaust crackle' PTTEC in the exhaust?" You can turn it off with the PSE button -- that doesn't make it artificial per se, but it does mean it was part of the design of the system. So far, I'm thumbs up on the engine note and character -- it's a little loud in "normal" and way too loud in "sport" mode: just about right. : )

Then there's PDCC. I can't tell you much about that acronym at all. It's not switchable, it's always on, only it's more on when the Sport button is on, and even morer on when the Sport Plus is on. I can feel it doing what it says it does, but it's damn subtle on public roads. I would raise a question mark on any journo that's had a 991 with PDCC for a few hours and asserts they can discern its strengths and weaknesses. In this Evo side bar, much as I respect some of the drivers there, I imagine they realize that comparing a Carrera to a Carrera S is a big delta, then comparing conventional springs to PASM is another variable, then saying anything about PDCC is all the more generalized because of the all the other variables (power, weight, programming, even unsprung weight would probably be more distinctly discernible at the helm than something like PDCC that might be taking a couple of degrees of roll out of the car for a split second here or there.) I think it's going to take a concerted effort with near identical cars where PDCC is the only difference and then it will take some track time and a really skilled driver to do a good job of finding and then describing what the car's doing. I know that people with track time have commented on even tire wear. That, to me, after many years of setting up numerous 911's for the track and countless sets of tires, is one very important characteristic of a properly set up car. Of course, as with all electronic, dynamic systems, seemingly valid signals can be misleading and artificial -- by that I mean that once I'm getting a good even scrub off a set of Hoosiers at ideal temps and pressures, I know the car is getting 90% of the peak grip of the tire for the highest possible apex speeds ... and it shows up on the data acquisition. But who knows with PDCC, it could be causing the car to be planted squared on the contact patch of the tires but doing so in a way that doesn't result in the same net effect of optimizing or maximizing peak traction at the apex. That's probably hard to follow from my description, so as an analogy I'd compare it to threshold braking versus ABS. Another analogy would be to compare a driver with smooth, slow hands versus a lesser driver "over-driving" (continuous and unnecessary corrections and steering input that tends to unsettle the car and prevent all the separate masses, moments and force vectors to work in concert.) So for me, the jury's out on PDCC until someone does some serious A-B apples-to-apples comparison (maybe even finds the fuse and puts a switch on it ... : )

To tie all this back into another thread of pricing, give me a "delete" option on S-PASM and PDCC and all the electronic and electric junk and I'll take it, even if it's zero dollars. One step further, if there was a factory "Ohlins" branded suspension option to get some nice, simple double or triple adjustable coil-overs and adjustable sways, pay up another $5K for it (round figures) ... I think a lot of buyers would take it (and 90%+ of GT car buyers would surely check that box.) I find it a clear example of failure in Porsche marketing to have left suspension off the menu in their cars, yet it's the single most important upgrade to any 911 -- and the first that most serious drivers pay up to improve when they start to ask their 911 for more than daily driver or weekend jalopy activities.

fbroen

What would the "off" position for the PDCC be -- fully relaxed rollbars, fully stiff setting?

Carrera GT

I hadn't thought about it, but you're right -- it would still need some static setting, I guess just the torsional equivalent of whatever "normal" or "sport" bar is under there on the non-PDCC cars or maybe the GT3 ... just so long as it wasn't actively changing and it didn't have non-linear characteristics.

Alan Smithee

To the OP, the same was said of the 997 by more than a couple European journalists - the hot set-up was the base car with PCCB, sans sunroof, with M030 sport suspension (non-PASM). Unfortunately, the latter two options were not available in the US.